Masters' Counterpoints

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With its brief but explicit descriptions of male homosexual violence, this unusual mystery explores the distinctions between aggressive physical abuse and voluntary participation in sadomasochism. Bruce MacLeod, a Southern California therapist (whose practices seem rather questionable), has a new client: television actor Frank DeSilva, who was abducted and brutally raped by a pair of men. Frank won't go to the police: he didn't see his abductors, who put a hood over his head, and he fears the publicity. Bruce is gay and his own tastes run to S&M, so he recognizes Frank's experience as one that could have come straight from an S&M handbook. Soon the police call in Bruce as a consultant: two other men have been abducted, and their accounts are similar to Frank's. One of the two, Charlie Stuart, wants to stay off the record and makes Bruce uneasy--something about his story doesn't sound right. Then Bruce's own emotions begin to interfere; he terminates Frank's therapy and embarks on a relationship with him in what appears to be Townsend's ( The Leatherman's Handbook ) working through of a sadomasochistic fantasy. (Oct.)